The Norton M. Seltzer Prize for Young Contemporaries was created in memory of Dr. Norton M. Seltzer by his wife, Mindelle. Dr. Seltzer. He was a compassionate and caring individual who sought to bring out the best in all the students with whom he came in contact at the College, particularly in the areas of the arts and Jewish Studies.
The Karin Jurick Prize for Young Contemporaries was created in memory of Karin Jurick by the Robert Lange Studios Community. Karin Jurick was a self-taught figurative realist painter with a deep respect for the history of art. She enjoyed observing and painting the everyday and strove to paint with “loose, expressive brush strokes, and used daring, vivid colors to achieve paintings with life and spontaneity.”
Two years ago, I co-curated an exhibition about the 80s in New York. We began with a list of a dozen artists, but gradually kept expanding the list until, in the end, it was 76! The gallery was not small, but the gallerist never said no, so we kept adding, giddy with new ideas. My process for selecting artists for Young Contemporaries 2025 reminded me of that. Carried away with a certain glee over the anomaly of arriving in a snowstorm in this Southern city, I erred on the side of inclusiveness. I trust that the installation team had fun and was not too overwhelmed. I envy these artists’ teachers who know the stories behind the works. I could feel the strong sense of community among the teachers and students and was hugely impressed by the level of artistry and commitment. There is ambition in using large scale as well as precision in making small, intimate works; there are adventurous uses of unexpected materials, particularly among the sculptors, and an embrace of color and emotional states among the painters and photographers. Rigor comes in figuring out what the work demands and making the choices that bring it alive.
In his book, Novelist as a Vocation, Haruki Murakami encourages writers to go deep to find their talent, but also to look at the mundane things around them as worthy subjects. Everything does not have to be drama; the minutiae of quotidian reality can be just as affecting. In either case, mining the depths of one’s being is key. And I felt the depth repeatedly in this bounty of work.
